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A Little Rain – Finally

September 29, 2011

Bishop Beans, Gardening, mulching, Vegetables , , , , , , Leave a comment

A week or so away from a fresh green bean

Today we had a nice line of storms come through and bless us with about a half of an inch of rain. Now we are only about 21.5 inches behind. Even better is the fact that a front hits tomorrow and our temperatures will drop significantly! The stress from the heat has been a real pain in the butt! Some of my attempts to direct seed have worked and others are not doing so well. Most of the lettuces are not showing up. I will reseed them over the weekend. The old reliable, the radishes are flourishing as are the beets, turnips, carrots and peas – well most of the peas….

The previously planted pole beans are climbing and now blossoming. I have zucchini beginning to develop and the bush cucumbers may actually produce before it gets too cold. I munched on some late sprouting asparagus shoots this week. Wow, so sweet straight from the garden.

Rain, rain come and stay!

Seeing the water gushing down and out the drain is a good thing. Haven’t seen much of that since early spring. Forecast is for another chance tomorrow. Fingers are crossed, prayers made and maybe, just maybe we will put a small dent into this lingering drought. I will do my part and gather the neighbor’s leaves and shred them for leaf mulch/mold. They must think I am nuts when I go up and down the street gathering leaves……Am I nuts? – Don’t answer that!

An August Update

August 24, 2011

Bishop Beans, Gardening, mulching, Solarizing, Vegetables , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Compare the garden beds from the “Too Much Sweat” post to now. A lot is going on. On the right hand side I am about 3 weeks into the solarizing effort to eradicate the Bermuda grass….. I hope! The left side is beginning to show signs of life. I have a nice Serrano Pepper Plant with lots of blossoms. A squash plant is emerging, the pole beans are beginning to climb and I have
three fall tomato plants struggling against the heat. In the background my asparagus ferns are cranking a ton of energy back into the roots for storage. I am so looking forward to the bounty of spears for next year;

“From these “ferns”, the mature plant manufactures food and stores it in “storage roots.” This reserve supplies the energy necessary to produce spears the following year.”

Click on the photos to see them in larger size.

I am mulching like crazy. I have been using the grassclippings and a big pile of leaves left over from the fall collection to conserve moisture. We are on mandatory water restriction here in Kingwood now. We are over 20” of rain behind for the year.

I am still sweating though. Between the beds I am poring 2’X2’ squares of rock looking concrete. The mold handles about all of an 80# sack of cement. I am adding a buff color for grins and have to say that it should look nice when done. The pouring and finishing of the squares sucks the water out of the body! I sweat through one T-shirt per square.

I am always amazed at how the beans always twist the same direction when they climb. Yesterday I swear that the two climbing now grew 6 inches overnight. My guess is that I will pick beans before the end of September. That will be the second crop for the year. I love fresh green beans. We sure could use some help for rain……please, dance, chant or pray for rain……even nice thoughts will be appreciated!

TTFN

Bishop

Too Much Sweat – Will it be Worth it?

August 6, 2011

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Vegetables , , , , , 2 Comments

I lost count of the T-shirt changes to get my garden make into some sort of change, but, it is well above 25. I went a little beyond but it will be worth it down the road. I pulled out the old 2X4’s used for the raised beds and went with 5/4X6 corral board to give me a little extra depth.

Rented a roto-tiller to speed the process up and sweated like a big dog. I worked some aged compost in both beds while I was at it. The right hand bed was the worst of the worst of the 4 for Bermuda grass invasion. I pulled out a huge pile of Bermuda grass and roots. Unbelievable how the roots run. Next week I will tightly cover this bed with clear plastic and “solarize” the weeds – i.e., kill them without toxins….. I like a chemical free garden for my veggies.

I have planted two tomato plants visible in the far left bed. They have been in for 4 days and seem to be handling the heat pretty well. I will add some fall potatoes in the day or so to this same bed. I have wanted to experiment with trying to grow some fall potatoes. I have about a pound of fingerling potatoes, cut and scabbed – ready to go in the ground. All of the commercial sellers look to be sold out so I am using store bought….. Not the best choice but it is just a $3.00 experiment.

I you look to the far back right in the photo you can see the dense growth of asparagus ferns. It appears that I should have a great harvest next year. I added a handful of 2 year old crowns the the existing bed in an effort to create a long term asparagus bed. If managed well this bed should produce for 20 years or more.

I also planted two mounds of zucchini squash. I have never had any luck but heard that if started in the heat of summer I may avoid the dreaded squash beetles. The other tip I heard was to plant hundreds with the likelihood the beetles will get some but not all of the vines. Well, my beautiful and loving wife has not approved the land purchase so I will be forced into plan C, D of F as I try my squash growing skills. The poles you see on the left will support my Kentucky Wonder pole beans. I love fresh green beans and they seem to produce well here in the Hoston area.

TTFN

Bishop

April 20, 2011

Bishop berrries, Canning, Gardening, jam and jelly, Mason bees , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I think my wife really does love me. I was out of town on a job in the Midland and Lubbock areas of West Texas and unable to tend to my gardening chores. I flew home early last Saturday morning and she surprised me with a big basket of my home grown strawberries. Wow, what a gal!!!! I finished filling one of the 1 gallon freezer bags already partially filled in the freezer and started a new bag. I need to make another batch of jam this week and may fill the next bag by the end of the week….. I will be swimming in my heavenly strawberry jam – Yum!!!!

Today was a partial day in the garden and I only sweated through one T-shirt. I weeded, watered and finished pulling up the last of my Detroit Red beets. I still have a very beautifully leafed beet variety that I forgot the name of yet to harvest. Very nice looking tops and we will see about the beet taste soon. I made a pickled beet recipe today to eat like a cold salad – it is pretty tasty.

 I used about 3 + cups of skinned and sliced up roasted beets. FYI – drop the hot roasted beets in ice water and the skins nearly remove themselves. I boiled ¾ cup of cider vinegar and ¾ cup of beet juice….. I poured almost a cup of hot water over the beets in a bowl to make the beet juice. Once that mixture was boiling I added 2 tbs. sugar, 2 whole cloves, 3 whole black peppercorns, a bay leaf, about ¾ tsp. of sea salt and about a cup of chopped red onion. Brought it back to a boil and poured over the beets. Refrigerated for a couple of hours and man, they are pretty darned good! Recipe is almost exactly like one I found in allrecipes.com. Great recipe resource!

Updates;

The Mason Bees. They are rapidly depositing eggs and filling the tubes. I have about 11 of the tubes filled and sealed. Should have quite a few more next season.

The worms. I checked on the poor guys Saturday when I returned and they were trying to escape. I had neglected both the food they need and the bedding necessary for their comfort. I was able to feed them a big a big batch of strawberry parts and tops – see the comments about my lovely wife above, some old bread, beet cuttings and other veggie scraps….. They seem to be back to work and not complaining now.

My Green Beans. The Kentucky Pole beans are leaping and now blossoming. The bush beans look to be on the same time table.

Asparagus. Slowing down and will let them fern out. I put some Martha Washington in a few weeks ago and they are sprouting.

Tomatoes. Slow but setting fruit….except my Brandywine – I do have a few blossoms on one but I have my fingers crossed. The Juliet tomatoes and Creole tomatoes are doing well.

Cucumbers. I put up twine to let them climb this morning….part of the sweaty shirt stuff. My cucumbers in my friends backyard ( I put a 4×4 patch in his yard) are blossoming and way ahead of mine! Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Enough for now, hopefully blackberry news soon!

Bishop

After the Winter Hiatus

January 31, 2011

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Vegetables , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Not today’s image!!!!

This is in my dreams for later on this spring and summer. Reality is much more grim!!

 
The garden is pretty bare right now – a few Brussel sprout plants made it through the freeze along with some of the sugar snap peas and an abundance of the beet varieties planted this past fall.
 
I have pretty well filled the compost bins with leaves and shredded leaves to be used for mulch in the near future.
 
I did transplant some lettuce plants yesterday but the labels have faded and I have no clue which variety will grace my table. The small half long carrot seeds planted last week have yet to show their tops. I will plant another round of carrots this week and continue some staggered plantings into early spring.
 
My friend John is allowing me to continue working the 4X4 plot I placed in his yard last year. He loved the abundant returns from the Juliet tomato plant. He had a good number of cucumbers as well as a handful of Texas A&M sungold tomatoes. We may even add another 4X4 adjacent to the first one. Making backyard gardening converts one by one. He has some beets poking up and I planted some chard for him last week.
Checking on my worms – the bottom bin looks done. Almost all of the little guys have moved up to the penthouse for the fresh food. Will probably sort the bottom bin this coming weekend and feed the plants. Speaking of plants – the strwberry plants are full of blossoms and I noticed a few berries that are a week or so away from taste testing. Can’t wait-  but I must!!!!!!
TTFN
Bishop

A How To Lesson – Compost Bin Basics

August 22, 2010

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Dual Compost Bin
Dual Compost Bin

This is my compost bin built primarily from remnants of my blown down fence after Hurricane Ike visited my neighborhood. It is about 75% recycled wood and wire screen, the remainder is store bought. Foot print dimensions are 30 X 36 inches and about 40 inches tall. On the left side you can see some wood slats drilled with holes for air circulation. The slats fit in a groove to allow access to the bin for turning and removal of material. At the base I installed access doors for removal of material – good idea but has not been real practical. I need to trim about an inch or so off the bottom edge to make it easier to swing the door open. I am still looking for a "round to it" to get pushed off center!

Why two bins? Well, originally I thought I would need two during the summer to keep up with the massive amounts of grass clippings we grass we generate in this God awful hot and humid climate. The nice surprise is that the grass heats up and decays so quickly that it never fills up. My son Joe came in the house one day after mowing and said the bin was too full. I suggested he look again in three days and see if it was too full. Three days later, plenty of room for the next week's mowing. I now use the other bin to hold the brown material needed to keep the ratio of green to brown material in a close to correct balance.

Training folks to use the bin – this is the tough part. I go back a few years to our Midland, Texas days. As always I had a bin in our Midland yard. I was coaching my wife to take the kitchen scraps, no meat, fat or bone – just veggies and bread, out to the bin or let me or one of the kids do it. Well we had a lesson learned experience. Kathy was making mashed potatoes and had a sink full of potato peelings. Instead of gettting them out to the bin she attempted to process them through the garbage disposal unit. Potatoes are very starchy and stick together – they plug up the disposal discharge line -SOLID! The repair is just some minor plumbing work easily enough done. I received a promise to never try that again. Well – the promise did not last long and I was under the sink again to remove the starch bound mass of peelings. The lesson has now been learned – that was probably 10 years ago and I have not been under the sink for that repair again.

What goes to the bin – most kitchen scraps over and above what goes to the worm bin, grass clippings (the green stuff), leaves (the brown stuff), mulched up yard waste (chopped up through the mower to increase surface area allowing quicker rotting) and anything that will decay.

A definitive guide is found in the book titled " Let it Rot" can't remember the author's name but it is a great source of composting info. I have misplaced my copy. My beds are healthier and more productive, the soil is easier to work and I have an abundance of large worms to take to the lake – cat fish love my worms!!! PS – not the little guys in my worm bin…… I need them doing their job of making wonderful worm poop.

TTFN
Bishop

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Need a little Balance in your Life?

April 10, 2010

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Balancing a log
Balancing a log

So what is this photo doing in my gardening blog? Well that is me in my younger years balancing a log but not wise enough then to understand what balance in my life should have been. Balance then was just having enough money for beer, playing a little Rugby and maybe catching hold of a young lady or two.

Now that I have begun to figure it out, yes – I still have a few things to learn, I use my garden as a big piece of my balance! After I have been out on the road with my work I can't wait to get back and check on the plants, the compost pile and see how the worms are coming along on their job digesting the kitchen scraps.It is part of my chill out therapy. See dear, I am also happy to see you & Joe and I do appreciate you checking on the patch while I am gone.(I have to be honest and truthful because she actually reads the blog!)

Tonight for dinner I felt like I made some connections for others about my "gardening jones" – see earlier blog. I planned to roast some fresh beets from my garden and also prepare the tops as greens. As I was prepping dinner my good friend John came over to give some input on the height of the new mirror we were hanging and to try a bottle of the beer I had just finished brewing, bottling and aging. I was anxious to share this new ale with my friend.(another part of my balancing). John tried the beets and they were as good as he remembered from his youth but he wasn't too sure about trying the greens.  It was a simple recipe but he couldn't believe how good they were. Now I had to convince my wife to try both the beets and the greens. She was a little too quick and ate the first beet before she heard me tell her to peel the skin off before eating. She ate it and did not seem to mind the skin. And, best of all,  the flavor of the greens surprised her.

Now my favorite part …. John picked from my garden last summer when we were away and I had tried to convince him to plant a veggie patch at his house. He didn't bite on my suggestion but he did enjoy the fresh eating from mine. His yard is situated much better than mine when it comes to sun exposure. It is really perfect, in fact I would even manage it for him. After he ate both the beets and greens he said, "Bishop, I guess you can put a garden in my yard….. another convert, yee haw!

Now I can help put a some balance into my good buddy's life and yard….And maybe I'm a little closer to convincing my wife that I need something bigger to balance…. no, not  bigger log but, maybe, just maybe a real acre or five!

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A Gardening Jones……….. And Other Craziness!!!!!

March 30, 2010

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My Brother-in-Law Just Prior to Attacking the Bush
My Brother-in-Law Just Prior to Attacking the Bush

An obsession; a burning desire. The undeniable passion or love for someone or something.

"Basketball Jones, I got a basketball jones, I got a basketball jones ooh baby…"
Well, I got a gardening jones and just gotta have it, ooh baby…..!


The picture looks out of place relative to the title…. but just keep reading!


I have been traveling and have not been able to get my hands dirty in my little patch back home in Kingwood TX. I have called my wife to check on the plants, worms, rain/weather and – oh yeah – how she is doing and how the soccer match went and to tell her that I love her and miss her!

I spent a couple of days with my mother in Los Osos CA doing a few honey-do's around the house and in the yard. I trimmed some run away ground cover, repaired some sprinkler heads and tried to unclog the rain gutter conduit out to the street….. got some flow but it needs to be pulled up and properly flushed and reset. As I was working I couldn't help but notice some wonderfully bare ground ……….. That bare ground, let me tell that story and then I will get back to my jones for this bare ground.

June of 2009 my mother had a wonderful  80th  surprise Birthday party that she had spent months planning – LOL – Her children attended with spouses, her grandchildren (15) and two of the three great grandchildren were in attndance. And yes, there were a few great grand children in the oven. She invited 100 or so of her friends from the park she lives in….. great bunch of friends that will always take a free meal and hope that Grammie Glo will entertain them… Well the family provided a very large work crew to do some clean-up at Grammie’s place the next day. Now the story….

 

My brother-in-Law Bill was on a chain saw massacre mission. I thought that maybe the nieces and nephews would get a chance to witness how badly flesh can be damaged by a chain saw… no such luck for flesh but before the chain bound up there was considerable damage to vegetation and the drip sprinkler system (well maybe he just added more drip locations????). Several months later the remnants of once healthy plants were removed, eg. The lush green juniper to the left of the chainsaw in the picture.

 

There is now a bare area just begging for seeds and transplants. It is deep sandy loam. I wanted so badly to get some carrot seeds and create an edible border coming up the walk. Those carrots would have had lush green tops and nothing to put those ugly forks in the roots like I have with the Houston clay that makes it so hard for me to grow carrots…( run on sentence). It just screams at me to create an edible landscape…. But, I left jonseing for a chance to give that bare spot some love – Mom said no and like a good son I resisted the urge. She said something like the deer would eat it…. I would share… wouldn’t you?

 

OK – next I stopped at my daughter Melissa’s house and she shares my jones….. I felt better after getting some Camarillo dirt on my hands, seeing the berry plants, checking out her new raised beds and the veggies taking root. I feel better now!!!! I may be able to hold off until I get back to my little patch now.

 

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Last Day of February Gardening

February 28, 2010

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Lettuce and Tomato Plants
Lettuce and Tomato Plants

I put some replacement tomatoes out to replace the early ones that I sacrificed. This young guy is sharing space with some tender Romaine lettuce. I have several varieties of lettuce going now. Romaine, Buttercrunch, Red Leaf/Red Sails, Black Seeded Simpson as well as a little spinach and red Swiss Chard.

The chard does very well here in Houston. Kind of a surprise. In fact the red was still edible into mid summer Iast year so I decided to plant some more.

I have a lot of ever bearing strawberry plants and use and use them as ground cover. Over the course of the season I gather enough to make some strawberry jam. I made about 12 jars last year and just now finishing off the last jar. Can't wait to gather up some more and if it goes well the 50 new June bearing plants may offer up some more! I added some new blackberry palnts yesterday, a thorny variety to add diversity to my thorn-less 3 year old plants. 

February Strawberry Blossom
February Strawberry Blossom

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Looking forward to Summer

February 20, 2010

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Sunflower
Sunflower

Sunflowers always remind me of summer. As much as I dislike the humidity that comes with a Houston summer I sure like to see the plants just jumping up. This variety of sunflower grew to over ten feet in height. Wish I could remember the name of the variety…..maybe I saved the seed packet. I will probably plant a few this spring…

I think next weekend will be warm enough to put some more seeds in the ground. More lettuce, green beans, beets, cucumbers maybe either direct seed some peppers or buy some plants. My early tomato seedlings all passed away so I put one Celebrity and one Big Boy tomato plant out yesterday.

I expanded my strawberry patch and got immediate feedback on the expansion from my lovely wife. It wasn't all that pleasant but once they take off I think it will pass her inspection in the "visible" yard. My veggies have to remain tucked away and out of sight.  I put in 25 Honeoye and 25 Ozark Beauty June bearing varieties yesterday. I have a lot of established everbearing strawberries but they tend to be on the small side. Hopefully the new ones take off and fill in nicely as well as bear a lot of bigger berries.

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